snostorm Posted July 12, 2020 Author Share Posted July 12, 2020 First corals ! 3 Quote Link to comment
Tired Posted July 12, 2020 Share Posted July 12, 2020 Nice! Do you happen to know the name? They look colorful enough to probably have a name. 1 Quote Link to comment
j.falk Posted July 13, 2020 Share Posted July 13, 2020 On 6/10/2020 at 1:26 PM, snostorm said: I bought the 20lb box of "shapes" They are big I didn't use it all. I kept rearranging the peaces and couldn't settle. All the while my female clown was dive bombing me. It filled up my whole tank It came with 4 peaces two arching branch types, large rock with a hole in it and a huge helmit type peace( which i left out). Finally I took the big peace out and said well this is as good as it gonna get. Aquascaping cubes can be difficult and you are limited with these peaces. It seems kinda contrived but I feel this arrangement gives space for getting more creative with corals. I like the minimal rock look in reef tanks. Ha! My female clown attacks me every time I put my hand in "her" tank. She's like a shark just waiting for a victim. LOL 2 Quote Link to comment
snostorm Posted July 13, 2020 Author Share Posted July 13, 2020 14 hours ago, Tired said: Nice! Do you happen to know the name? They look colorful enough to probably have a name. ...eagle eyes i think. Quote Link to comment
snostorm Posted July 13, 2020 Author Share Posted July 13, 2020 So sadly my cleaner shrimp died. Kinda bummed. Got him as a juvenile on the cheap. He was growing nicely molting..etc. Last night he didn't come out for feeding so I looked and saw him bobbing in the back under a rock so I thought he was getting ready to molt. IN the AM he was a goner. I immediately tested my water and all seemed fine. I am at a loss as to what caused his demise. 2 Quote Link to comment
seabass Posted July 13, 2020 Share Posted July 13, 2020 1 hour ago, snostorm said: I am at a loss as to what caused his demise. Yeah, it's always hard to say why they die, and can rarely definitively find the cause. Plus, we usually don't know exactly how how old they are, or how many times they have molted. It could have been a complication of molting (some attribute that to lack of iodine in the water). However, shrimp are fairly sensitive creatures; so we might not completely rule out the possibility of the recent changes having something to do with it. Since you're an old hat, I assume that you removed a meaty body, as opposed to not being able to find it this morning. Quote Link to comment
snostorm Posted July 13, 2020 Author Share Posted July 13, 2020 3 minutes ago, seabass said: Yeah, it's always hard to say why they die, and can rarely definitively find the cause. Plus, we usually don't know exactly how how old they are, or how many times they have molted. It could have been a complication of molting (some attribute that to lack of iodine in the water). However, shrimp are fairly sensitive creatures; so we might not completely rule out the possibility of the recent changes having something to do with it. Since you're an old hat, I assume that you removed a meaty body, as opposed to not being able to find it this morning. yeah been fooled before by the molt... 1 Quote Link to comment
snostorm Posted July 16, 2020 Author Share Posted July 16, 2020 ok so now that I have corals some serious lighting Im trying to figure out what to set my Steves LED's at. I have the whites set at 800 which is around 20 percent with the blues set around 50 percent. I have never had lights where I had to worry about frying coral....im hesitant to up it until I have more corals introduced as I would have to acclimate all over again. I bought the violet iridescence boosters so I get nice pop. If anyone has these lights and can share their experience I would be grateful. 1 Quote Link to comment
snostorm Posted July 18, 2020 Author Share Posted July 18, 2020 So I have a frag if some neon green paly’s and they seem to not doing as well as the other frags I bought. On closer inspection I think there is an aptisea anemone on the plug. It’s very small but it’s there is this bastard compromising the paly ? Quote Link to comment
seabass Posted July 18, 2020 Share Posted July 18, 2020 Aiptasia will likely irritate the zoanthid colony. Eventually the polyps might even fail to open, and slowly fade away. Plus, many of the aiptasia remedies could potentially kill the palys as well. One approach might be to touch the aiptasia anemone to have it retreat into the plug (noting where it went). Then pull the plug out of the water and super glue over the place where the anemone retreated. Another solution (which might depend on how well the coral is attached to the plug), and probably the method that I would choose if it were me, would be to peel the paly polyps off of the plug, then discard the plug. However, care must be taken as you don't want to damage the coral. Plus, palys could potentially contain palytoxin. Quote Link to comment
Tired Posted July 18, 2020 Share Posted July 18, 2020 I wouldn't try removing the palys, you might damage them. And there is the whole "toxin" thing- you'd have to wear gloves, and that seems like a major inconvenience while trying to do fiddly work on slippery live animals. Superglue works great. Take the plug out of the water so the aiptasia retracts, then put glue over where it went. I actually have a video of myself doing it, here. It's not the best footage, it's with my phone, but you can see the method. You want a liquid superglue, not the gel stuff, for this. Gel doesn't spread like you need. 1 Quote Link to comment
snostorm Posted July 18, 2020 Author Share Posted July 18, 2020 37 minutes ago, seabass said: Aiptasia will likely irritate the zoanthid colony. Eventually the polyps might even fail to open, and slowly fade away. Plus, many of the aiptasia remedies could potentially kill the palys as well. One approach might be to touch the aiptasia anemone to have it retreat into the plug (noting where it went). Then pull the plug out of the water and super glue over the place where the anemone retreated. Another solution (which might depend on how well the coral is attached to the plug), and probably the method that I would choose if it were me, would be to peel the paly polyps off of the plug, then discard the plug. However, care must be taken as you don't want to damage the coral. Plus, palys could potentially contain palytoxin. Im agitated over this. Clearly the polyps are effected by it. At first I thought it was my lights. I though maybe it was sensitive to them but it didn't make sense as my other zoa colony is doing well along with a mat of GSP. After what I went through getting rid of my mushroom infestation by replacing my rock with life rock. One of the benefits of the life rock was no hitchhiker pests. one plug and bam freaking aiptasia. Im gonna try and cover it with glue an an effort to preserve my investment. But I am tempted to cut my losses and rid my tank of the potential pest. Quote Link to comment
Tired Posted July 18, 2020 Share Posted July 18, 2020 Don't freak out too much. A single aiptasia isn't a major problem. It can BECOME a problem, but on its own, it's an easily handled situation. Just pop some glue over it, and you should be good. The main way people get infestations is by either bringing in a bunch on something (usually rock from a LFS or someone else's tank- most popular sources for ocean rock don't come from areas with aiptasia), or not noticing a single one for long enough that they get everywhere. Even if you do find a couple more somewhere, you can get those with the glue, too. No sense chucking out a perfectly nice-looking paly frag over one little stingbeast. 2 Quote Link to comment
mcarroll Posted July 18, 2020 Share Posted July 18, 2020 8 minutes ago, snostorm said: One of the benefits of the life rock was no hitchhiker pests. one plug and bam freaking aiptasia. I'd suggest that it's more of an alleged benefit. Marketing. As you found, it's only true when you start the tank. After that it's (more or less) a dice roll with everything you add to the tank. So when you look back and the decision of live rock vs dead, as far as the tank is concerned much was lost and nothing was really gained. So the concept of a "clean start" for a reef is really an empty concept. This is what a clean start has looked like in the aquarium hobby since forever: While it is a tried and try formula, it only goes so far in terms of becoming an ecosystem. Doing a reef version of that – starting with everything "inert" – is taking a step back into that conception of aquarium keeping. It is retrograde, in the literal meaning of the word. The hobby (as we know it) is based around The Berlin Method, which was (in a nutshell) just live rock and a protein skimmer, along with supplementation to account for growth of coral skeletons. (Flow and lighting were also part of the equation, of course, but not unique to that method.) 19 minutes ago, snostorm said: bam freaking aiptasia You know what I say to that? Bam. Freaking Aiptasia X. I've used this EXTENSIVELY. Keep some around if you're bringing in livestock that can carry them. If you don't know how, learn. Watch vids. Ask here. IT WORKS. Use it as soon as you notice the anemones. 1 Quote Link to comment
snostorm Posted July 18, 2020 Author Share Posted July 18, 2020 10 hours ago, mcarroll said: I'd suggest that it's more of an alleged benefit. Marketing. As you found, it's only true when you start the tank. After that it's (more or less) a dice roll with everything you add to the tank. So when you look back and the decision of live rock vs dead, as far as the tank is concerned much was lost and nothing was really gained. So the concept of a "clean start" for a reef is really an empty concept. This is what a clean start has looked like in the aquarium hobby since forever: While it is a tried and try formula, it only goes so far in terms of becoming an ecosystem. Doing a reef version of that – starting with everything "inert" – is taking a step back into that conception of aquarium keeping. It is retrograde, in the literal meaning of the word. The hobby (as we know it) is based around The Berlin Method, which was (in a nutshell) just live rock and a protein skimmer, along with supplementation to account for growth of coral skeletons. (Flow and lighting were also part of the equation, of course, but not unique to that method.) You know what I say to that? Bam. Freaking Aiptasia X. I've used this EXTENSIVELY. Keep some around if you're bringing in livestock that can carry them. If you don't know how, learn. Watch vids. Ask here. IT WORKS. Use it as soon as you notice the anemones. The Caribsea "life rock" was seeded with spored bacteria. I kept my sandbed which was very mature and put some legacy peaces of rock in the sump area for the conversion. I did not see any cycle the transition was pretty seamless. I had a mushroom only tank it was the only way to get rid of them. Will this product harm the coral? Id be concerned applying it so close to the polyp. I will consider this in the future. Gonna glue the bastard closed.... 1 Quote Link to comment
Tired Posted July 18, 2020 Share Posted July 18, 2020 The sandbed will help, but bacterial maturity is only part of the puzzle. You also need biodiversity, and you get that in the algae, worms, and other critters that live on the rock. 2 Quote Link to comment
snostorm Posted July 18, 2020 Author Share Posted July 18, 2020 2 hours ago, Tired said: The sandbed will help, but bacterial maturity is only part of the puzzle. You also need biodiversity, and you get that in the algae, worms, and other critters that live on the rock. yep thats why Im going very slow. Im seeing pods, and some critters. So far my params are good. Its been 5 weeks so far so good. I got the aiptasia x gonna give that a go I dont really want to rip the frag plug out.... 1 Quote Link to comment
mcarroll Posted July 18, 2020 Share Posted July 18, 2020 10 hours ago, snostorm said: The Caribsea "life rock" was seeded with spored bacteria. I kept my sandbed which was very mature and put some legacy peaces of rock in the sump area for the conversion. I did not see any cycle the transition was pretty seamless. I had a mushroom only tank it was the only way to get rid of them. Will this product harm the coral? Id be concerned applying it so close to the polyp. I will consider this in the future. Gonna glue the bastard closed.... Safer than gluing – I've seen plenty of corals and anemones (and fish) eat it during MDK-for-aiptasia-time. (Nothing against gluing – it's fine. It just seems like more work/mess/waste.) Quote Link to comment
Tired Posted July 19, 2020 Share Posted July 19, 2020 I like gluing because, if you see an aiptasia, you can handle it pretty much immediately. Most people have superglue on hand. (Right?) And if you do have to buy some, it's cheaper. It's effective, it's just messy. If you have multiple, or if you want to be ready for future aiptasia, getting A-X sure works. It probably is much less messy, and I'm sure it results in much less gluing your handling tongs to things. 1 Quote Link to comment
snostorm Posted July 19, 2020 Author Share Posted July 19, 2020 5 hours ago, Tired said: I like gluing because, if you see an aiptasia, you can handle it pretty much immediately. Most people have superglue on hand. (Right?) And if you do have to buy some, it's cheaper. It's effective, it's just messy. If you have multiple, or if you want to be ready for future aiptasia, getting A-X sure works. It probably is much less messy, and I'm sure it results in much less gluing your handling tongs to things. I agree. I glued the plug and didnt want to rip it off the rock. Hopefully i got the job done with the aiptesia x... 1 Quote Link to comment
mcarroll Posted July 20, 2020 Share Posted July 20, 2020 8 hours ago, snostorm said: Hopefully i got the job done with the aiptesia x... The beauty of it is that if you did he'll come back and give you another try. Practice makes perfect! 😉 1 Quote Link to comment
snostorm Posted August 12, 2020 Author Share Posted August 12, 2020 Borrowed a par meter to get an idea what Steve’s LEDs bring. These lights will grow about anything I would imagine right now with the whites at 15 percent and the blues at 53 percent I get about 90 par at the bottom of my tank. 2 Quote Link to comment
snostorm Posted August 23, 2020 Author Share Posted August 23, 2020 Ok so my friend has BTA’s running amok in his tank and Gave me one. Figured her why not....lol it really has nice colors can’t see in the pic. Wondering where it will settle. 2 Quote Link to comment
snostorm Posted August 23, 2020 Author Share Posted August 23, 2020 Its on the move.....getting ready to relocate some of my frags. This thing got huge and is relocating fast.... Quote Link to comment
seabass Posted August 24, 2020 Share Posted August 24, 2020 I can't believe the price Live Aquaria is getting for those now. Looks nice, hope it settles in soon. Quote Link to comment
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